All space geeks and science fiction fans were saddened this week by the death of Arthur C. Clarke. The famed writer and visionary was probably best known as the author, with Stanley Kubrick, of the 2001: A Space Odyssey yarn, and for being the first - more than a decade before the first Earth satellite was launched - to sketch out the notion of launching satellites into geo-synchronous orbits as communications relay stations. He conceived the global telecommunications industry we take for granted today.

My one brush with Clarke's genius and fame was back in 1982, I think, on the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first such communications satellite, called Telstar. I was asked by my editors at The Evening Sun to write a piece on the milestone.

It was quickly apparent to me that I could not write the article without talking to Clarke. To my dismay, I learned that he had long-since moved to Sri Lanka. My first task was to figure out how to reach him. Then I would have to calculate what time of day I could call him, given the vast time-zone differences. Then I needed to come up with some questions that would yield answers useful to the story, without simultaneously embarrassing myself.

I was awed by the guy, and very nervous.

Somehow, I managed to get a phone number, and arranged a time to call. I was told I would not have much time with Clarke, who was very busy and much in demand. All I remember of the conversation that ensued was that he was very impatient with me, and not at all impressed with the sophistication of my questions. The whole thing was made worse by annoying transmission delays - the long signal travel-times inherent in satellite-based telephone communications, the very technology innovation we were celebrating.

It ended up being a very short, and not very enlightening interview. But, I had real, exclusive quotes from The Man for my story - like truffles for an omelet. And as badly as it had gone, I knew I would never forget that I once spoke to Arthur C. Clarke, via geosynchronous satellite communications. Thanks to him for his intellectual and literary legacy, and farewell.

Here's a little video snippet of Clarke I stumbed across this morning - amusing for his obvious admiration of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:11 AM | Permalink
                    

Credit: NASA

There's a pretty cool story by my colleague Allison Connolly in today's paper about companies in Maryland and elsewhere trying to develop propulsion systems that future spacecraft could use to get to Mars and back. There's a cool picture and some video, too. Video is everything these days.

Continue reading "To infinity and beyond" »

Posted by Dennis O'Brien at 10:20 AM | Permalink
                    

If you've never met a real astronaut, and you have loads of questions about space travel, this may be your chance. And you can take your parents, too.

Donald Thomas, 52, a former NASA astronaut and current director of the Hackerman Academy of Mathematics and Science at Towson University, will host an "Ask an Astronaut" session at TU, at 10 a.m. and noon on Feb. 23, Smith Hall, Room 23. It's part of the academy's Saturday Morning Science Series.

The February calendar also offers a program on Feb. 9 called, "The Science of Chocolate: From the Trees to Your Stomach." (For more information on the series, call 410-704-3659.)

So, if you've been just dying to ask a space traveler stuff like, "How do you shower in space?" or the inevitable, "How do you go to the bathroom?" this will be your opportunity. Here he is on one of his flights, combing his hair. which will not lie down in weightless conditions.

Once those questions are out of the way, why not ask him, "How many stars can you see from the space shuttle, or the International Space Station?" Or maybe, "Is it scary when those engines fire up at launch and the whole space shuttle starts shaking like crazy?" Or, "How can I become an astronaut and go to the moon or Mars?" Or even, "Why don't we save all that money we spend in space and use it instead to improve life on Earth?"

Dr. Thomas, who holds a Ph.D in materials science from Cornell, retired from NASA in July. He is a veteran of four shuttle flights between 1994 and 1997, and logged 1,000 hours in space. He's made almost 700 orbits of the Earth and logged 20 million miles of space travel. Okay, so it was all around in circles, but still...

Posted by Frank Roylance at 5:29 PM | Permalink
                    

Here's another photo of Mercury out this morning from the Science Operations Center for the Messenger mission, down at Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab.

Here's the release. Here's today's story in The Sun. Here's a link to the science image gallery for Messenger. And here's this morning's new image:

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:08 AM | Permalink
                    

Scientists at the controls of the Maryland-built Messenger mission to Mercury have released images of the planet nearest the sun taken Sunday. It shows a crescent Mercury dead ahead as Messenger neared its planned flyby just after 2 p.m. today.

All systems appear to be "Go" for the close encounter. It will provide scientists with their first closeup look at Mercury since the Mariner 10 spacecraft made three flybys in 1974 and 1975.

The picture at left shows Mercury at a distance of about 470,000 miles. The planet is about 3,000 miles in diameter - about the breadth of the continental United States.  The smallest feature visible in the photo is about 12 miles across.

Just after 2 p.m. today, messenger will pass by the planet at an altitude of just 124 miles. Cameras on board are pre-programmed to take more than 1,200 images during the flyby, including portions of the surface that Mariner 10 never saw. Other instruments will measure and map Mercury's magnetic field, surface topography, and elemental composition.

About 22 hours after the flyby, if all goes as planned, the spacecraft will turn its high-gain antenna toward Earth and begin uploading its discoveries to scientists at mission control, located at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab near Laurel.

Messenger will make two more close passes of Mercury, in October of this year and September 2009. In March 2011, it will settle into orbit around the planet for at least a year of scientific study. 

Mercury is visible from Earth now, low in the western sky after sunset. It's not easy to spot, but here's a photo that will give you an idea what to look for.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The Maryland-built Messenger spacecraft has snapped its first images of the planet Mercury prior to its flyby next Monday. The pictures of Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, were taken for navigational purposes. They are the first of Mercury by a spacecraft from Earth since Mariner 10 last visited in 1975.

The NASA-funded mission, planned and operated by scientists and engineers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, will include two Mercury flybys, designed to slow the craft down. In 2011, it will drop into an orbit just 125 miles above the planet -for an extended period of study.

Here's a release on the start of navigational photo imagery. And here's a link to an MP3 file of an interview by the Planetary Society with the mission's principle investigator, Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He'll give you a pretty thorough briefing on the mission.

The image here is an artist's rendering of Messenger at Mercury.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:40 PM | Permalink
                    

Controllers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab have completed a course correction designed to steer NASA's Messenger spacecraft toward a Jan. 14 encounter with Mercury, the nearest planet to the sun.

It was the 19th maneuver since Messenger was launched in August 2004 on its $426 million mission. The 110-second rocket firing on Wednesday added 3.6 feet per second to the craft's speed, adjusting its trajectory closer to the intended aim point 124 miles above Mercury's night side.

Messenger, designed, built and operated by APL, is the first spacecraft dispatched to study Mercury since Mariner 10 flew by twice in 1974 and 1975. Its 6 1/2-year voyage has already taken it past Venus twice - most recently in June, when it flew within 210 miles of the Venusian surface.

Next month's Mercury flyby is the first of two in 2008 and 2009, as the spacecraft slows its speed enough to enter orbit around Mercury in 2011.

In all, Messenger will make 15 loops around the sun and travel almost 5 billion miles before reaching its final destination. Messenger's instruments will send back photos of the entire planet -- only 45 percent of which was imaged by Mariner 10. They also will analyze Mercury's surface geology, gravitation, magnetic field, the structure of its molten core, and sparse atmosphere.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

When astronauts initiate a radio exchange with controllers on the ground, they use an efficient verbal shorthand. Instead of, "Come in Houston Control, this is the crew of Discovery calling. Can we talk?" they say, simply, "Houston, Discovery."

So, when the shuttle Atlantis finally reaches orbit (today's sunset launch has been scrubbed for a day because of valve problems) and delivers the European Space Agency's new Columbus module to the International Space Station, one might assume the same protocol would apply.

Astronauts will use the new module mainly for scientific experiments, and it will become the ESA's primary headquarters on the station. Most of the other space station segments were built by the United States and Russia.

So, when astronauts are working on board Columbus, and they need to converse with controllers and engineers on the ground, you would expect them to begin with, "Houston, Columbus."

Or maybe not. The Columbus Control Centre was constructed in the German state of Bavaria,  after all, and not in Texas, or even in Columbus, Ohio. The name of the town: Oberpfaffenhofen. It's not far from the Bavarian capital, Munich. 

Maybe a German astronaut can roll that off his tongue - "Oberpfaffenhofen, Columbus." But I suspect others might stumble. "Oberfaffernofin ... Oberpaffenhoppen ... Anybody down there?"

Apparently others reached the same conclusion. The official call name astronauts will be using for Columbus Control?

"Munich."

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:51 PM | Permalink